Saturday, February 23, 2013

Salmon is good for you and for your
heart and circulation. Doctors recommend you eat salmon twice a week.

But wait one minute. Where does that
salmon come from?

It turns out that most of the Salmon
we buy is not caught in the ocean but farmed. Most salmon is farmed
in tanks in the ocean.

From a purely ecological point of
view that is problematic. For every pound the salmon puts on, it eats
three pounds of fish meal. A very inefficient way of producing food
in a world with food shortages, especially overfished oceans.

This salmon is also not as healthy
as advertised. Most salmon are farmed in open pens and cages in
coastal waters. Waste from these farms is released directly into the
ocean. Parasites and diseases from farmed salmon can spread to wild
fish swimming near the farms and escaping farmed salmon can harm wild
populations. As a result, all salmon farmed in ocean net pens get an
"Avoid" ranking. In addition farmed salmon are
significantly higher in PCBs.

But now salmon is not only
factory-farmed; it is about to be genetically modified. Salmon
growers inserted a gene from an eel into salmon. That insertion makes
the salmon grow much faster and thereby saves money to the grower.
This tampering with the genes of our food does not benefit the
consumers and may harm them in many ways that have not been
discovered yet. But it does benefit the producer by lowering
production costs. The government is about to permit production and
sale of this genetically modified salmon. The salmon need not be
labeled as genetically modified.

Monsanto and other agricultural
chemical companies have figured out how to implant genes from one
plant into another, or now also from one animal to another. Is that
safe? The companies producing GMO foods say it is , but they do not,
in fact, know any more about that than anyone else.

“In what is bound to stoke the
debate over the labeling of genetically modified foods, scientists in
France have published a controversial study reporting that rats fed
corn that was engineered to withstand spraying with the herbicide
Roundup developed health problems, including tumors and trouble with
their livers and kidneys.”
(http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/20/science/la-sci-gmo-food-study-20120920)

“These fish are also less
healthy than
wild Alaskan salmon
or even farmed Atlantic salmon. The few studies that have been done
on these genetically engineered fish have shown that they contain
lower levels of heart- and brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than
either form of regular salmon. These fish are also notably deficient
in certain vitamins, O'Neil adds. There's also a great deal of
concern that genetically modifying salmon could increase the
incidence of seafood allergies among the public.”
(http://www.rodale.com/genetically-modified-salmon-0?page=0,0)

Clearly we do not have anything like
proof that GMO foods, vegetable and animal, are bad for consumers.
But there is some reason to worry. The consumer has no way of making
an informed choice because GMO foods are not labeled as such. If
consumers had that information, they could choose to avoid certain
foods depending on their anxiety level about its potential harmful
effects. If they do not know that the food they buy is genetically
modified, they are more likely to buy it and make the cash register
ring for the sellers and producers of GMO foods.

Industry does not alert us when we
consume genetically modified food. The FDA, having no doubt been
lobbied heavily, does not demand that industry tell us when we are
eating such foodstuffs. Everyone is consuming genetically modified
food, at least in the form of GMO soy beans and corn.

Genetically modified salmon may
endanger consumers but promises to enrich producers. It will be more
certain to enrich producers if we, the consumers, do not know which
is the genetically modified salmon so that we will blithely consume
salmon that may make us sick.